This course provides CME credit and is only for individuals that are eligible for CME credit (physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses). All others should register for the course under the Laboratory Training category where the course is offered for
P.A.C.E. credit.

A risk is a future event that may result in loss or injury. In healthcare, the future event specifically refers to harm to a patient (negative patient outcomes).

In 1999 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published a study entitled “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System.” Its estimate of the number of deaths and adverse outcomes caused by medical errors sent shockwaves throughout the healthcare community as well as the general population. Perhaps for the first time members of the healthcare community began to seriously look at the way healthcare is delivered and how the process could be improved to enhance patient safety. Thus, one of the most beneficial results from the IOM study was that healthcare providers realized that they urgently needed to fully and more effectively incorporate “risk” as a crucial component of their management.

Risk Management is an important discipline for laboratory directors and medical laboratory professionals, as it is our responsibility to understand and follow the vast number of rules and regulations governing laboratory testing. It is the goal of this course to present an overview of risk management with a clinical laboratory point of view to show how risk management can improve the quality of care we give patients.

Learning Objectives:

Define “risk” and discuss why risk management is important in healthcare.

This CME activity has been designed to change learner competence and focuses on the American Board of Medical Specialties areas of patient care, practice-based learning and systems-based practice.

This Enduring Material activity, Laboratory Director Continuing Education Program, has been reviewed and is acceptable for credit by the American Academy of Family Physicians. Term of approval begins 08/01/2018. Term of approval is for one year from this date. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

AAFP Prescribed credit is accepted by the American Medical Association as equivalent to AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ toward the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award. When applying for the AMA PRA, Prescribed credit earned must be reported as Prescribed, not as Category 1.

This course will take 1 hour to complete and there are no prerequisites. A credit certificate will be issued upon completion of the course evaluation and post-test with a score of 80% or better.

Faculty, authors, planners and other persons who may influence the content of this CME activity must disclose all relevant financial relationships with commercial interests in order for CME staff to identify and resolve any potential conflicts of interest. Any planned discussions of unlabeled/unapproved uses of drugs or devices must also be disclosed.

The course planner and reviewer Verlin K. Janzen, MD, FAAFP has no relevant financial relationships to report. There will be no discussions of unlabeled/unapproved uses of drugs or devices in this online learning course.